Heavy-duty vehicles, such as Class 8 trucks, typically include a chassis, an engine engaged on the chassis, a radiator and grill mounted on the chassis in front of the engine, a hood for enclosing the engine, and a cab mounted on the chassis. It is often desirable to have an air suspension system or other suitable system that allows the cab to move independently of the chassis to provide the driver and passengers with added comfort. More specifically, the cab normally moves fore and aft and up and down relative to the chassis in response to changing conditions on the road.
Depending on the type of hood used, the hood may be mounted at its forward end to either the radiator or the forward end of the chassis, and the hood may be mounted at its rear end to a portion of the cab. Conventional heavy duty trucks have a large, engine-covering hood which tilts about a transverse pivot point located above the forward end of the chassis to expose the engine for servicing.
In a typical installation of a hood on a heavy duty vehicle, the hood is secured to the vehicle frame after properly positioning the hood on the vehicle frame such that the hood to cab cowl gap is within predetermined standards. However, the hood must be secured to the cab to accommodate the fore and aft movement of the cab (due to the cab air suspension) without requiring an undesirably large hood to cowl gap.
Fixed connections between the chassis and the cab (through the hood) prevent the fore and aft cab movement and the up and down cab movement required of the cab suspension system. Thus, it is desirous to have a hood mounting system that secures the hood to the cab in a manner that has an appropriate hood to cab cowl gap and that accommodates the movement of the cab relative to the hood and chassis.